Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a field-effect-controllable compensation semiconductor component.
Semiconductor components of this type are sufficiently known and described for example in German Patent DE 43 09 764 C2, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,215, or European Patent EP 0 879 481 B1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,184,555. The essential aspect of compensation components of this type is that compensation zones are formed in a drift zone, which compensation zones are doped complementarily to the drift zone and are usually connected to the channel zone, referred to as a body zone in MOSFETs. The compensation zones enable a higher doping of the drift zone and thus bring about a reduced on resistance of the semiconductor component without reducing the dielectric strength of the component. This is because if the semiconductor component is driven in the off state and there is a reverse voltage across the semiconductor component, and thus across the drift zone, then the compensation zones ensure that the free charge carriers of the drift zone are depleted and the drift zone behaves like an undoped semiconductor material with regard to the dielectric strength.
In semiconductor components of this type, it is known for compensation zones likewise to be provided in edge regions of the semiconductor body, which compensation zones are disposed in a floating fashion, however, that is to say are not connected to a defined potential. If these compensation zones disposed in a floating fashion, with the semiconductor component in the off state, are intercepted once by the space charge zone propagating in the drift zone, then the compensation zones and the surrounding regions of the drift zone are depleted of free charge carriers. The floating configuration of the compensation zones has the effect that even when the component is switched on again, the edge regions remain depleted and thus do not contribute to the current carrying of the component.